This helped.

The box that I tried the serial communications program CuteCom on is still a mystery. But, on the other box I set aside my assumption that the serial ports were ttyS0 and ttyS1. With a little random coding I discovered that the two serial ports on the motherboard were ttyS2 and ttyS3. I had not considered this a possibility, but I also never thought that I would see a motherboard with two serial ports on it (not plug in cards).

This gives me two boxes with the serial ports working. That coveres the emergency of the day. I'll figure out the other box later.

Thanks for the help,
Bruce